The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #104445   Message #3622813
Posted By: Young Buchan
28-Apr-14 - 06:29 PM
Thread Name: The Joe Stalin Blues (Pete Seeger)
Subject: RE: The Joe Stalin Blues
'Yes, Ewan MacColl did write a song in praise of Stalin, "The Ballad of Stalin".'

He is also sometimes attributed (whether accurately or not, I don't know) with the song that begins:

Hitler's a non-smoker and Churchill smokes cigars;
They're both as keen as mustard on imperialistic wars.
But Uncle Joe's a worker and a very decent chap;
He even smokes a pipe and wears a taxi-drivers cap.

The German drive on Stalingrad is ging mighty slow;
They've got a room in no. 9 of Slobaskaya Row.
Hitler makes the blunders and his generals take the rap;
But Joe just smokes his pipe and wears his taxi-driver's cap.

It would be difficult today to say which is less PC - the attitude to Stalin or the attitude to pipe smoking.